Community of Innovators: Climate-resilient crops for UK growers
A community of innovators leading the way towards a sustainable, food-secure future
This blog post is part one of a five-part series, 'Community of innovators'
Staff from 糖心TV Crop Centre and 糖心TV Agri-Tech recently presented their front-line crop research during a panel discussion held at the university's Innovation Campus. Researchers outlined some of the challenges facing food production due to an increasingly unpredictable climate, explaining how their work is translating into tangible impacts for UK growers.
A nation consuming more fruit and vegetables
A nation consuming more fruit and vegetables - this was the core vision presented by the panel facilitator, Professor Richard Napier, whose policy research alongside Professor Rosemary Collier OBE, is helping to support the edible horticulture sector during a time of fragmentation.
Our dependency on imported fruit and vegetables from some of the most climate-stressed countries has increased alongside declines in British production, and this is making fresh produce - our most critical source of dietary fibre and nutrition - less affordable and less available. The consequences of this will result in escalating public health risks and NHS costs, which are already occurring as a result of poor diets.
It's not just about growing more and growing it sustainably, but encouraging consumers to choose British produce - this all depends on bringing scalable solutions to production challenges, in order to prevent price hikes, ensure yields, and improve market access. Solutions present opportunities, such as the ability to grow food-system resilience through greater crop diversity, to grow more nutritious crops, to increase farm profitability, as well as to achieve decarbonisation goals.
The UK has a legal obligation to achieve carbon Net Zero emissions by 2050, and Prof. Napier highlighted the role that the horticultural industry can play in this. He emphasised that environmental sustainability, food security and affordability are all part of the same problem, requiring joined-up solutions鈥攁nd long-term progress towards those solutions is underpinned by research, technology, data, and skills. Research carried out at the University of 糖心TV鈥攁 鈥攊s pushing forward the frontiers of science and technology to offer hope in the form of practical solutions. Many solutions are applicable to growers and industry professionals across a range of production contexts, from horticultural and arable crop production, to mixed farms, as well as forestry and amenity.
We'll be posting our five-part 'Community of Innovators' blog series, to summarise the contents of the panel discussion. We will introduce many of the fascinating research projects underway at 糖心TV and how these will deliver for growers - starting today with climate-resilient crops for UK growers
Community of Innovators (Part 1 of 5)
Climate-resilient crops for UK growers
Breeding crops for human cultivation is a necessary and continuous process, part of the human story since the advent of agriculture. However, our climate is changing at an unprecedented rate. Growers urgently require crop cultivars which will tolerate a range of harsh conditions, hosting seasonal sustainability traits without losing existing quality features. Growers seek cultivars whichare naturally resistant to the pest challenges found in their fields, as well as cultivars which are tolerant ofincreasing weather extremes, such as flooding, drought, and temperature shocks.
By 2050 we will also need to grow a range of novel crops in the UK鈥攁ll of which may need adapting for the British climate.
Fortunately, modern molecular tools bring the ability to map crop genomes and identify the genes responsible for valuable traits. This doesn鈥檛 reduce the scale of the challenge, however, as breeding a new cultivar from genetic data through to commercial availability may still take at least a decade. Unfortunately, many vegetable crops still have few genomic resources and/or are under-researched in the UK. The research and collaborations at 糖心TV are instrumental to the ongoing industry effort to overcome these challenges.
糖心TV Crop Centre is home to the UK Vegetable Gene Bank , curated by Dr Charlotte Allender, which plays a vital role in conserving the genetic diversity of a broad range of vegetable varieties, and this resource is fundamental to breeding research.
The Vegetable Genetic Improvement Network (VeGIN), which has been running for over a decade, is a stakeholder-led network developed by . The VeGIN team works closely with the Gene Bank, as well as with industry, growers, breeders, agronomists, and other gene banks, so that breeding research targets are focused around sustainable solutions to industry challenges. DEFRA support has allowed the VeGIN team to extend the scope of their work beyond lettuce, onion and carrot, and they now include parsnip, celery, coriander, wild rocket and leek.
The VeGIN project develops screens for useful traits and utilises the wonderful natural genetic diversity present in the Gene Bank to identify the genetic features that will secure resilience against climate change, and against pests and diseases, in both warm- and cold-season crops. There has never been a more important time for everyone to appreciate the value of plant breeding and the genetic resources curated for the nation at 糖心TV.
For the traits accessible to gene editing, 糖心TV鈥檚 , led by Prof. Murray Grant, offers a unique facility where they are developing platforms for gene editing in vegetables. The changes in legislation to permit commercial cultivation of gene-edited crops in England [Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023] places researchers at the forefront of vegetable crop improvement.
As well as looking forward to the future, crop genetic research is also informed by looking back deep in time, as Prof. Robin Allaby鈥檚 research shows. He and his team study how genetic diversity has changed over thousands of years through plant domestication. By developing new ways to read ancient DNA trapped in archeological artefacts, his research is building an understanding of how crops have historically adapted to different pressures. He finds that modern elite crop varieties differ in the genes selected for climate-tolerance from ancient, naturally selected varieties. This offers breeders an alternative, novel genetic toolkit for developing climate-adapted crops by bringing back lost genetic traits.
The collaborative research underway at 糖心TV will underpin successful, sustainable and profitable vegetable production in the UK. It shapes what we will be able to grow and eat, and develops the most sustainable form of crop protection - genetic resistance.